Leadership Conference Statement on the 50th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

WASHINGTON: Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement ahead of the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade:

“This is a moment of discontent. For the first time in 50 years, we are remembering Roe v. Wade after the Supreme Court reversed it — the first time in history that the Supreme Court revoked a fundamental right and turned its back on its own precedent protecting a fundamental right. The unsound Dobbs decision leaves far too many women and girls and transgender and nonbinary people searching for ways to get the abortion access and reproductive health care they deserve. Today, we recommit ourselves to the fight to ensure that every person can make decisions about their bodies. We know that it is people of color, lowincome people, and transgender and nonbinary people who already face so many discriminatory barriers to accessing health care and who are most harmed by this devastating decision. Other rights could be next.

“Today, we remember and celebrate the activists, advocates, and health care providers who trusted us to control our own bodies and who fought tirelessly for decades for the right and access to abortion. We celebrate and support the activists, advocates, and health care providers who are still fighting for the fundamental right to an abortion and for the right for all of us, particularly people of color, and particularly women of color and uninsured women, to get the reproductive health care they deserve.

“The civil rights community is unwavering in the face of the unacceptable. We will continue to work in coalition with leaders in the reproductive rights and justice movements, fighting for abortion access and protections at the local and national levels. We are committed to defending and expanding access to the ballot, understanding that it is voters in states who can wield the power to win protections that the Supreme Court has taken from us and to demand the care every person has an inalienable right to receive. We will continue to support the confirmation of diverse judges who are committed to our civil and human rights. And we will continue to demand that Congress pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, reinstate the expanded child tax credit, and expand Medicaid so that abortion access is available, poverty is reduced, and health care is accessible for all. We have spent decades fighting for racial and gender justice and health equity, and we will not stop now.”

Black History Month/ continued from page 6

History Week would “concentrate on study of the present,” “not be afraid of radical literature” and, above all else, advocate for peace and voice “eternal opposition against war between the white and colored peoples of the earth.”

Were he alive today, Du Bois would certainly have much to say about current debates around the teaching of African American history and the larger significance of African American studies. Du Bois died on Aug. 27, 1963, in Accra, Ghana.

But he left behind his clairvoyant words that remind us of the connections between African American studies and movements for Black liberation, along with how the teaching of African American history has always challenged racist and exclusionary narratives of the nation’s past.

Du Bois also reminds us that Black History Month is rooted in a legacy of activism and resistance, one that continues in the present.l

Chad Williams is a Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies, Brandeis University